Sink or Swim?
As you have probably figured out from the title, I want to take this opportunity to talk about the sinkers and specifically my experiences with them. The sinkers are a group of regions which by design or otherwise, I have had a great deal of interaction with. Ive served in the Cabinets of Lazarus, Osiris and Balder - and also as Delegate in the latter. So Im sorry if this is a very lengthy and somewhat unfathomable account of multiple events across a fairly wide time period in these regions, but I will do my best to keep it interesting.
When I joined NS, sinker wise there was only TRR and Lazarus – 2 fairly unremarkable, and solidly defender regions. I never really thought I would have much to do with them, but circumstances made it turn out otherwise…
My first involvement with Lazarus was the invasion of April 2008 led by GB&I, TNI, TLK and Gatesville which unseated the then Delegate, Northern Chittowa - at the time not long retired as Arch Chancellor of the FRA, with which we were in conflict. The invasion had been co-ordinated and executed by the War Council - a semi-secret military command centre between the 4 regions involved, of which I was involved on behalf of both GB&I and TNI. I recall the Gatesville representative, Pope Lexus X, was uneasy about the mission, foreseeing the inevitable defender political backlash, but that was just a bonus as far as I was concerned.
The GB&I Foreign Office Press Release, which I put out a few days later, was deliberately provocative. The message was simple and in your face, it was titled Great Britain And Ireland and Her Allies Succeed in Lazarus and accompanied by this picture of HMS Vanguard firing a broadside, and I think this would set the tone for many future interactions.
The response in Lazarus and elsewhere across polite society was fairly angry. Lazarus temporarily shut our embassy. But behind the facade of fury was fear. Lazarus wished to mitigate this threat, and sought to placate TNI. Within a year, Griffin Somerset - my then wife and Kaiserin of TNI, had been elected Queen and Delegate of Lazarus, and I was appointed as Foreign Secretary there. But at this time, most GCRs generally not just Lazarus, were mired in inactivity - and I soon moved to invest my time elsewhere. Griffin went on to become Lazaruss longest serving Delegate, holding the delegacy for much of 2009-10, and again in 2012, but was never able to decisively change the regions destiny.
Much later, things started to get more sustained in terms of increasing relevance of sinkers, and in September 2011 I had an indirect brush with TRR, when Earth22, a key figure in Europeia at the time, proposed a Euro-TRR Treaty. Soon after she secretly rallied raider support for Sedges May 2011 coup of TSP, she had become involved in the region. And obviously wished to create a new alignment to suit her new interests there. I however was not so keen on the idea of Euro allying with a FRA region, just because she was there, and after pointing out several false claims she had made about the Treaty to the President, as well as suggesting the way it was rushed through the EAAC was not a coincidence, but deliberate - the Treaty was canned.
In October 2011 it was announced that new sinkers would be created due to the bloated state of Lazarus, thus redistributing the surplus of refounded nations. This was of course the beginning of Balder and Osiris, the two newest sinkers, and whose eventful histories could easily fill several volumes.
Osiris was taken over by TITO and a number of experienced players from several backgrounds soon joined. Meanwhile in Balder, the players were generally much newer and less experienced. Unibot had secured the Delegacy and Sovereign Liberties the forums, and they planned to hold elections for an Interim government. It was thus widely presumed that Balder would become a defender region. And because no one else seemed to be interested in challenging this, I joined with a number of friends - most notably and significantly Rach and Cerebella - two players of considerable note.
While the flamboyant Unibot sought to procure the Delegacy, I thought the real prize was the ROOT, and Rach won that. Putting the ROOT up for election was something that Unibot later came to regret, it was purely his sense of overconfidence that led to this pivotal upset. His confidence wasnt entirely misguided - if SL and Belschaft had not split the vote, the defender candidate would easily have won. From hereon in, we had a crucial foothold, and a position which made the planned defender domination of Balder much less simple.
After this Unibot and his defender allies such as Eluvatar went on a drive for an elaborate Condorcet based voting system that would prevent such a mishap ever recurring! But it was largely an irrelevant argument, and other events would come to take centre stage over the future of Balders politics. Unibots candidate for delegacy, Lux, couped, and the pro-FRA Fotar was his replacement. As the UDL went off licking their wounds, FRA sought to get more involved in Balder. Balder became known as a region of drama and instability. In contrast Osiris was building a reputation as a professional and stable region.
There was no dominant political force in Balder, but me, Rach and Cerebella were all effective political figures, and we had a common cause - to protect Balders independence and integrity from the powerful defender forces around us in the other sinkers. On which note, the next major development was the Pan Sinker Security Pact, which was negotiated between Lazarus, TRR and Osiris - who had a considerable shared membership through various defender channels. Balder was a late entrant to the Treaty, and it was only through my negotiations that we were finally let in - some defenders viewed us as too risky, but ultimately the leading figures felt fairly confident that we were too weak to pose a serious threat to defender power.
Not long after we put their theories to the test. Soon after the PSSP was signed, TRR was raided by TNI, ejecting the 100 or so allied troops in Belgium to TRR. Obviously, contrary to what was said at the time - I had everything to do with this. I didn’t just plan it with TNI Command, overseeing ejection practises with Onder, so we could gauge how long it would take and thus when to start - it was my idea to start with. Suffice to say, it succeeded and is the 1st and only time purely military units have been used to seize TRR.
But the actual mission was only the beginning, the real gains were to be had in the subsequent chaos. I revelled in the indignation of the defender world, but it was not politically expedient to admit to involvement for a variety of reasons, mainly political. The TNI Reich Elector, Cerebella, also wisely chose to keep a low profile on the matter, but Rach let over-excitement get the better of her, resulting in a private message to St George on IRC with the text MOTHERFUCKERS! WE DID IT. It was hard to plead neutrality and deny involvement after he had plastered that everywhere, but somehow she did it, and survived an attempt to impeach her as ROOT. Meanwhile, I went on to be win a landslide victory in the elections for President of Europeia 3 days later.
Demands were made for the removal of various people in Balder. It caused quite a big fuss, and split the defenders and moderates in the other sinkers, as well as serving to strengthen our position in Balder by cementing over dividing lines that favoured us electorally. In the end, they were powerless, they couldnt force us to do anything. Amendments to the PSSP were passed to stop it happening again, but nothing could be done retroactively. It was a source of great frustration to the defender camp that they couldnt nail any of us down on it, and it wasnt till 18 months later that the 2013 Lazarus crisis finally gave them the ability to remove me from TRR.
So, time went by, and Balder gained stability under the delegacies of Zander and By Night. In October 2012 Cerebella defeated St George decisively in an election for Delegate of Balder, and this was a crucial turning point which provided us with an extremely capable leader. Meanwhile St George was rewarded by his defender paymasters with the Delegacy of Osiris. This symbolised the changing fortunes of the regions, and from hereon in Osiris became increasingly unstable and unable to cope. In December 2012, members of the self-proclaimed Empire tricked the UDL into believing there was an invasion and used their forces to coup the region with Dalimbar and Neo Kervoskia briefly. An embarrasing moment for the UDL, given how obvious it was to anyone with an ounce of wit about them what was going on. Unfortunately for UDL, only one of their Lieutenants, Cormac, possessed that attribute, and he was ignored.
I took an increasing interest in Osiris from then, as it was obvious all was not well and eventually something would have to give. The power vacuum after the departure of Lyanna Stark from frontline duties, and towards a UDL-centric role, was obvious. It was around this time that Griffin Somerset served her final term in Lazarus, and Feux was elected there. Lazarus was chronically inactive, and it was starting to become an embarrassment. It didnt seem to matter whether it was under DYP, Harmoneia or Griffin - the result was a barely alive region. With the GCRs generally, and specifically the other sinkers enjoying ever greater levels of activity and relevance - Lazarus stuck out as an obvious power vacuum. The election of Feux in late 2012 at first seemed like a fairly harmless occurrence, but after Stujenske proposed an amendment on behalf of Feux which established a hereditary Monarchy and abolished elections, it became obvious that he was anything but harmless. It was not clear at the time whether Feux was working for solely for UDL or NPO interests, or indeed a combination thereof that reflected his own interests as they changed with time - but ultimately it became clear they lay primarily with NPO, albeit a defender NPO.
But it didn’t matter that much - I had long lost trust that NPO had any control of its affairs, and considered it to have fallen under a combination of incompetence and defender influence. Me and Griffin blocked the proposed new Constitution which would have given Feux total control in Lazarus, and Cerebella joined us in our efforts to frustrate Feuxs control of Lazarus through their legislature, the Emerald Council. The Lazarene constitution was written in such a way that many things required a ⅔ majority, and so with a relatively small group of people we were able to block Feuxs every move. Unfortunately though we were unable to replicate the political success of Balder in the stifling environment.
The next event in February 2013 was the launch of SovCon - which was initially planned to have Lazarus, Osiris, TRR, NPO, Gatesville and Equilism. I held several discussions with this organisation and they raised their merits in combating the troublesome influence of UDL in the GCRs. Maybe it was never built to last, and it achieved its goals in incurring the wrath of Unibot and Earth or something like that I am told. I certainly offered Balder to consider membership, as well as the prospect of several UCRs I was involved in. My price was Admin and 2 representatives or something like that, but they wouldn’t match it. I don’t think they realised just how good value that was, or maybe they were afraid we would be too powerful - certainly if we had been able to join under the conditions I wanted I have the utmost confidence we would have taken a significant stake in the alliance like GB&I did with ACCEL many years before. Griffin also challenged Feux for the Delegacy in February 2013, and Feux prepared to coup if she won, but she somehow failed - prolonging the situation which was gradually moving in their favour as her influence drained. I also put an end to Lazarus’s plan to join, which probably sealed my later fate there as it embarrassed Feux immensely he wasn’t able to deliver the region to his NPO masters as promised.
Meanwhile, all was indeed not well in Osiris. Predictably in June 2013, The Dourian Embassy refused to hand over the Delegacy to Cormac, and instead gave it to Gatesville. They held a very strong position, and there was an expectation that the coup could go on for a very long time. During the coup of TSP by Milograd earlier in the year I had sat down and figured out the influence equations to assist the liberation efforts. The fact no one else had been able to do it before then is somewhat remarkable, but my approach was pure simplicity, I just used Excel to fit curves and then guessed it from that - which might explain where a lot of people tripped up before. This technological breakthrough gave me considerable insight to what could be done to save Osiris, where I had for some time been appointed director of Foreign Affairs. And also contacts with key people. I went to Cormac and Asta with my novel plan to use the UIAF to aide Gatesville and build influence. It was approved, they were desperate to get back into the battle, and it was guaranteed to have an impact. All the conventional liberation attempts were being repelled with ease, but UIAF troops built up a critical position within the invading force wherein their withdrawal would drain a critical level of influence. It was an unparalleled military and diplomatic manoeuvre that left the defender world seething, and many others astounded. Cormac was a big fan, but Asta seemed concerned about UIAFs increasing power, especially the fact that we preferred to take a deal with GV to outright victory. In the post liberation Osiris, I played an increasing role in the security of the region.
Meanwhile Feux, Karpathos, Milograd, AMoM etc, decided it was time to make a move. Their annoyance at the state of affairs in Osiris was barely veiled, and perhaps partly stemming from jealousy that they had neither the power, skill or creativity to pull something like that off themselves. They took the opportunity to launch the NPO Retort and seize control of Lazarus, correctly presuming it would be drowned out by the chaos in Osiris. Without even holding the ⅔ majority required to expel members from the Legislature, they illegally banned me, Cere and Griffin from the region. They had the support of DYP, a critical power balance holder in the region, and a member of the FRA, who obviously decided that we were a greater threat than NPO, perhaps understandable at the time. They might have gone further and took full NPO control of the region there and then, but either their defender attachments/ambitions were too strong, or they werent confident about going it alone. In any event, Milograd went on the serve as FRA Arch Chancellor, and Feux was appointed as Chief of Feeder and Sinker Affairs in UDL.
Meanwhile in Osiris, Venico was elected Pharoah and established the OFO to rid the region of the Empire players and with a view to making it a pro-raider GCR. This was a project which enjoyed my full support, and I was promoted to Admin on the new forums, as well as being Intelligence and Security Minister. The establishment of the Imperial Sovereign Realms Army marked the zenith of Imperialist power in NS, but it wasnt a productive institution in itself, and was marred by squabbles. The original plan which was very much of Cormac and my design, was to use Imperialism as a compromise between the Independent and Raider factions of OFO - but in the event neither really liked it, and it ended up getting shelved after Cormac and I couldnt agree on a coherent strategy to move forwards. It was his unilateral decision to pursue a war with TBR that would have ultimately led to the region becoming aligned with defenders unless it was pursued by the whole sphere that forced me into political opposition to him. He reacted with fury, and sought my removal from the region, the ensuing arguments leading to the end of the imperialist experiment and both our careers in the region.
As for the 2015 Lazarus coup, Ill defer to the article by Funkadelia except to say I was approached by people on behalf of them about helping liberate Lazarus from NPO, and also by NPO to support their side. I was offered the title General by NPO, but ultimately they couldnt make a convincing case for the sphere generally, or even Balder, and no one trusted NPO to keep their word anyway. I asked the liberators what was in it for us if we helped liberate Lazarus and initially the answer was goodwill. Goodwill with defenders who are never going to accept our position or the right to raid? Thats something we can live without. I think ultimately we would have negotiated something tangible for assistance, but Kazmrs defection brought an early end to the Coup, so there was no chance to leverage military assets.
Meanwhile Balder continued in stability, under the Delegacies of Rach and myself and then Rach again. The path has not always been without difficulty though, especially during the period when Rach dismissed the Riksdag, and took direct control of affairs. That all occurred somewhat mid-way through the Lazarus coup. Perhaps taking a leaf out of their book regarding opportunistic timing! Nonetheless due to the excessive time taken to implement a replacement Constitution, and an increasing alignment chasm with TNP, this did ultimately result in the failure of the Balder-TNP treaty, a much protracted affair though that was. But nonetheless with the Delegacy enshrined in an Monarchy Institution like with Foundered regions, and with the potential to develop a political system on those foundations, the future has many opportunities. Today the forums approach 100k posts, likely before Christmas - which will be a new milestone and record for all Sinker regions.
So there you have it, my perspectives on and involvement in the history of the sinkers. I think really in conclusion, my history with the sinkers is not a matter of chance, but inevitability. Given the importance of these regions to defender institutions such as the FRA and UDL, and the war that we were waging on those groups, involvement was an inevitable consequence of any serious attempt to fight back against them. Indeed it has been a long battle to prevent a defender hegemony across the sinkers - certainly I think if we had done noting, that would likely be the status quo today. Given the huge advantages for incumbents in NS, I think it is no surprise that the 2 original sinkers are defender.
We can look back at this all, in a world where R/D has grown increasingly irrelevant, and say it is all a bit strange. In an era where most GCRs now have significant and stable home-grown communities, the very idea of defender organisations being able to wield collective influence in them may seem almost a bizarre concept. Defender orgs are simply not a cohesive threat anymore. But back then it wasn’t a case of business as normal - it was a real battle for Independence. And I think we exceeded all expectations especially with some the innovation we demonstrated militarily. Today we live in a different era, but at the time, the threat was real, and it was a case of Sink or Swim.